Save the Children To Host Ealing Open Event

Save the Children are hosting an open event in the Ealing Mary’s Living and Giving Shop (2, The Green, W5 2DA) on Tuesday 19 August 2014 at 6.30pm. The charity hope that the meeting will allow people in the community to come together and learn about how they can make a difference to children’s lives within Ealing and across the world.

Save The Children will have staff experienced in fundraising, retail and organising charitable campaigns present at the community talk. Current volunteers will also be on hand to answer any questions Ealing residents might have, offering advice and explaining thier role in the charity. Complimentary canapés and drinks will be served. Local MPs Stephen Pound and Virendra Sharma have announced that they will be attending the event.

Clayton Ricketts, Save The Children's Fundraising Manager for Greater London said that the charity's "extensive" series of programmes within the UK, “directly benefits the communities that fundraise for us. This opportunity for local people to come together will reinforce the already well-established strong community feeling in Ealing and together we can make a real and lasting difference for vulnerable children in the area.”

One major campaign currently being organised by Save The Children in Ealing, is this year's FAST (Families & Schools Together) cycle, due to start this Autumn. FAST is an award-winning early-intervention programme that brings parents, children, teachers and the wider community together, in order to make sure that children get the support they need to fulfil their potential at school and in their wider life.

Beyond FAST, Save the Children has Born to Read volunteers going into local schools to work with children throughout the academic year. This regular support endeabours to enable children to make progress in their confidence and literacy and thus open a much wider range of opportunities to them.

Save the Children argues that literacy is the key to giving children the chance to fulfil their potential, and can point to statistics which indicate that children who do not learn to read early in their education struggle to get qualifications later on. Among children who leave primary school without basic reading skills, five years later almost all of them – 93% – fail to get five good GCSEs.

Local MP for Central Ealing and Acton, Angie Bray said “I’m really pleased to see Save the Children holding this event in the heart of Ealing, so people can find out more about their work and get involved. Ealing has a strong charitable record with a talented volunteer base.”